Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator FY ’26
Accelerating breakthrough Yale innovations to solve the most urgent environmental challenges.
This year's awarded projects— supporting breakthroughs in the destruction of forever chemicals, flexible and modular manufacturing for mass timber, phage therapy for aquaculture —are exactly the early, high-risk work that can stall for lack of support. They are also exactly the type of innovations we need more of.
—Stu Decew, Director of the Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator
Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator: Year in Review
The Yale Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator (PSIA) launched in late 2025 with a clear and urgent mission to move Yale’s world-class environmental research out of the laboratory and scale it into applied, real-world innovations. Part of Yale Planetary Solutions and powered by Yale Ventures, PSIA is the commercialization-focused track within the broader Yale Planetary Solutions Grant Program—which funded 19 projects across the university in its 2026 cycle. Where that program advances research across the full spectrum of planetary challenges, PSIA invests in and empowers faculty teams to bring scalable "hard-tech" environmental solutions to market — technologies grounded in physical components, materials, and processes rather than software alone. The Accelerator focuses on the root causes of our planetary challenges, from climate and biodiversity crises to critical issues not yet in the popular imagination.
HIGHLIGHTS: FY 2026
4
Projects
$1 M
Awarded
2
National NSF I-Corps Winners
PSIA is more than funding. While a subset of faculty teams gets non-dilutive grants, all applicants get advice from experienced operators and domain experts, guidance from staff at Yale Ventures, direct support from PSIA Venture Associates, and connections to a global network of investors and industry partners.
From the 2025–2026 applicant pool, PSIA selected 4 projects for milestone-based grants of up to $250,000 over two years: PFAS destruction via catalytic defluorination, carbon-negative PFAS remediation on agricultural lands, robotically fabricated mass-timber construction, and phage therapy for aquaculture. Led by Stuart DeCew and overseen by Julie Zimmerman, Yale's Vice Provost for Planetary Solutions, PSIA pairs that funding with mentorship and commercialization guidance—plus the scaffolding around it: 10 venture fellows drawn from the MBA, MEM, MPP, PhD, and undergraduate programs, more than 20 executives-in-residence advising faculty teams, and a newly formed advisory board.
The program's value shows most clearly how it connects faculty to the partners and resources they need.
- When 2024–2025 awardee Lea Winter's team needed guidance on patent filing support, PSIA coordinated across Yale Ventures and our local partners at the Carbon Containment Lab (CCL) to meet the needs of the team and technology. PSIA then embedded a summer venture fellow to build the commercialization plan along with Lea and CCL.
- Among this year's cohort, PSIA encouraged and guided two teams to participate in the regional Customer Discovery program supported by I-Corps. After successfully completing the regional program, both teams went on to win national NSF I-Corps awards of $50k each.
- In making connections both on and off campus, Alan Organschi's team secured a Yale west campus site to build a prototype and run pilot experiments and joined ClimateHaven, a New Haven based incubator, to accelerate the development of their business plan and fundraising strategy.
PSIA is made possible by a generous gift from Eleanor and Chad Laurans, both of the Yale College Class of 2000 and co-founders of SimpliSafe, with additional support from Beth Birnbaum '94 and Barney Harford.
2025 - 2026 Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator Awards
The first round of Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator awardees was part of the Yale Planetary Solutions grants.
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Yale Innovation Summit
CLIMATE TRACK
The Climate Track at the 2026 Yale Innovation Summit brought together founders, investors, scientists, researchers, and industry leaders to examine how innovation can accelerate the transition to a more resilient and sustainable future. Through discussions spanning clean energy, water, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, infrastructure, and climate finance, the program explored the technologies and partnerships needed to move breakthrough ideas from the laboratory to global impact. Featuring keynote conversations, pitch competitions, investor-led reverse pitches, and research showcases, the Climate Track underscored Yale Ventures’ commitment to advancing scalable solutions that address the world’s most pressing environmental challenges through collaboration, entrepreneurship, and scientific innovation.
About the Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator
The Yale Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator (PSIA) is a faculty accelerator launched in 2025 to fast-track the development of transformative solutions to environmental challenges. PSIA is part of Yale Planetary Solutions and powered by Yale Ventures, aimed at mobilizing the breadth of Yale’s research enterprise. PSIA is made possible by a generous gift from Eleanor and Chad Laurans, both of the Yale College Class of 2000 and co-founders of SimpliSafe, with additional support from Beth Birnbaum '94 and Barney Harford.